UPDATES

Call for Submissions Expanded!

So I have continued to get submissions here & there, but I am really hoping that we can generate lots of poems down the stretch for this project—as it is YOUR project, people of the QC—so I've decided to open up the submissions a bit more widely. There is a prompt, as I am sure you have seen (check older posts if not), but if you find the prompt confusing, confining or just lame, forget it. Just write SOMETHING! 3 poems or less, having something to do with place & identity (or not, I suppose), send them along. I'm hoping we can get this conversation rolling as we get deeper into the fall, which I find to be one of the best times to be living in this area: the smells, the colors, the shrinking days. Picking up an extra hour of sleep. Magical. Seriously though folks, I hope you'll all contribute something, even if writing &/or writing poems is not something you do regularly.

If you are worried about what a poem is, well, that's a long conversation. My best & most brief suggestion is to say that it has something to do with words & instinct. I suggest thinking about how place & identity are related, how they are related to you & to express your thoughts in words. They certainly need not rhyme, or be in a poetic form of some kind. It most certainly does not have to sound "poetic". It should, perhaps, feel true when you read it: true to an idea, an image, something less tangible perhaps.

What I would do is, well, what I did for the new material coming out in my chapbook: I thought about the place where I'm from, thought about my memories of specific places & specific people. I free associated from sort of general ideas or memories or images I got from reflecting back on who I am & where I'm from. I listened to where the words had the most appealing music to my ear, followed the images in a way I felt to be true to what I was trying to represent. Did I get it right? That's entirely up to you as readers, but I feel like I got close & I trust that feeling. Maybe that isn't as helpful as I want it to be, but I would end by saying that if you start writing & it doesn't sound like you &/or what you think a poem should like, you are probably on the right track.

One last thing: if you want to submit, want to get some feedback from me & do not want to be considered for publication, no worries. I am more than happy to read your work & will give it the same amount of attention regardless of your intentions for it. Okay? Now write something & send away!

Chapbook Update

Just a quick note to let everyone know that my chapbook, COMPLICATED WEATHER, will be available one week from today, Sept. 18. Some free copies will be available through the Davenport Public Library, who will be distributing a limited number of copies to the public for the book discussion I will be doing at the DPL Fairmount Branch on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 4 p.m. More info on when & where you can get your free copies WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! If you can't get a free one, fret not: copies will be available through my person & this website, at a very affordable price, very soon.

Visible Cities Shout-Out

The first piece of correspondence I have received about this project came from a Quad City native based in Seattle, artist Nancy Kiefer. I very much would like to include an excerpt from the very kind & supportive email she sent me regarding the project, I will wait until I have her permission. Suffice to say for the moment I am very moved by her remembrances of Rock Island (where she is form) & the QC in general, especially considering where she is living now. She & I have both appeared in the pages of the literary magazine Cranky, also based out of Seattle & she is extremely talented. Take a minute & check out some of her work here.

Thanks everyone! Write something— it does a body (& soul) good. More soon true believers…

Love & best,

RRC